Truth and Traditions

Salon has an article on 12 things the Murdoch has done to make the world a poorer place for you and me:

1. He has transformed world politics for the worse: It was George W. Bush’s first cousin (John Ellis), working as head of Murdoch’s Fox News election night “decision desk,” who, during the Florida voting uncertainties, called the election for Bush and set off a chain reaction from other media.
2. He has ridiculed and raised doubts about global catastrophes, and about science itself, while elevating absurd theories and hyping minor matters.
3. He has undermined liberty: His outlets led the drumbeat for restriction or elimination of certain fundamental rights, … while at the same time … fueling panic justifying the buildup of the national surveillance state.
4. He has turned the public against the press.
5. He has simultaneously propagandized for “the law” and compromised it.
6. He has undermined essential rules about propriety in the news business, degrading ethical walls put in place through long tradition.
7. He has propagandized for many of society’s worst instincts.
8. He has until now effectively neutralized many would-be critics in journalism.
9. He has relentlessly applied a double standard: Long a vilifier of others as communist sympathizers, he has created a pragmatic, but cynical partnership with the Chinese communist party dictators that has benefited him financially without helping (in fact, in some ways hindering) the prospects of democracy and freedom in that country.
10. He has dumbed down the news business and hence the public.
11. He has used his wealth regularly to stave off businesses and individuals that his company has illegally damaged.
12. His campaign contributions and the public support of his media organizations have persuaded politicians to override laws against media monopolies. And with each successive step, his growing dominance made the following step in building an empire easier to achieve

Although I generally admire entrepreneurs who build giant companies, Rupert Murdoch, despite giving us Homer Simpson, generally has not been a force for good over the course of his long career. His Bill O’Reilly-ed, Glenn Beck-ed Fox News has done a great deal to coarsen the political discourse. His tabloids have lowered the standards of journalism on three continents — and routinely broken the law on at least one of them. He had dumbed down his prestige papers, like The Times of London. He has run roughshod over cross-ownership rules meant to prevent one man or company from having too much power — and then used his lobbying might to get those rules diluted. He has put kowtowing to China ahead of freedom of the press, even killing a book set to be published by his HarperCollins unit that the Chinese authorities objected to. He has consistently used his media properties to reward allies and punish enemies. It’s a long list.

via The Tables Are Turned on Rupert Murdoch – NYTimes.com.

WASHINGTON – The closest nuclear power plant to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., was singled out weeks before the storm for being vulnerable to twisters.

via ‘Tornado Alley’ reactor not fully twister-proof – Yahoo! News.

Surprise, surprise! How many US nuclear reactors will be in the way of major storms in the next 3 months, 6 months, year?